The French update
Ségolène Royal has been fleshing out her plans somewhat, and has decided that a few minor tweaks to the constitution merit renaming it the Sixth Republic. As with constitutional meddlers closer to home, all of this fiddling is suposed to make the Republic (which is 'a permanent coup d'etat', in Mitterand's words) more democratic and more efficient. Apart from removing the Senate's veto powers, it looks pretty thin stuff. Given that previous republics have come to pass after revolutions, wars and other, erm, major events, this looks like yet another solution looking at the wrong problem.
What is more telling is that she wants to embed 'social democracy' and what might be called populism, including:
Promotion of mass trade unionism (How very modern)
Worker representation on company boards (How very stupid)
Any petition with a million signatures to be examined by Parliament (and then ignored, presumably)
And not forgetting her wretched citizen juries.
What is more telling is that she wants to embed 'social democracy' and what might be called populism, including:
Promotion of mass trade unionism (How very modern)
Worker representation on company boards (How very stupid)
Any petition with a million signatures to be examined by Parliament (and then ignored, presumably)
And not forgetting her wretched citizen juries.
Neither Le Monde nor Libération have managed to get very excited about 'the VIth Republic', so it isn't just me. There are also shades of discontent among the tribunes over 'Désirs d'avenir.org' appearing on the rostrum, with this evoking the 'New' attached to Labour it would seem: "Making Socialist representatives march under this banner is ridiculous. We have not changed the party". Source
Labels: France
This entry was posted
on Monday, March 19, 2007 at 4:50 pm.
You can skip to the end and leave a response.
She's definitely a lightweight, sad to say.
I hope it pays well. it has all the appeal of following the William hague campaign of 2001.
shivers, that was a tough time to canvass.
My French farming friends are going with Bayrou,their view is that she looks a nice 'girl' but she is a salon socialist, and it is all rhetoric, with Bayrou he has a tractor, you can trust a guy with a tractor !
Seho will lose, and lose badly. Were I a Gaul, I would hold my nose and vote Sarko.
Guthrum makes a good point about tractor owners though.
» Post a Comment